Feds: Mountain View man lied about military service, fighting ISIS

( KRON ) — A Mountain View man, Omar Naziry, was indicted with mail fraud on Wednesday for falsely stating he was in the military to obtain pay benefits, the Department of Justice announced.

According to the DOJ, Naziry’s former company had a policy — first instituted following the 9/11 terrorist attacks and later expanded to cover all forms of military leave — of paying a differential to employees who went on military leave.

In August 2016, Naziry, 40, allegedly requested differential pay from his company on the reported basis that he was deployed with the U.S. military in support of “Operation Inherent Resolve,” a U.S. military command established in October 2014 to fight ISIS.

“Naziry allegedly sent false military orders and a false military leave and earnings statement,” the DOJ said. Naziry was then offered differential pay by his company and allegedly continued to repeat the same act over the next five years “on the purported basis that his deployment had been extended,” Naziry’s indictment alleges.

About five years later, in December 2021, Naziry’s former employers informed him that they were denying his requests for additional pay “on the basis that he had exhausted the five-year differential pay limit,” the DOJ said.

In response, Naziry allegedly sent a letter to his former employers authored by a “friend” and “army officer” stationed in Hawaii that wrote in part:

“I highly recommend you overturn this decision you’ve made or at least have a plan in place for how to mitigate the negative effects of the story once its [sic] public . . . . I hope you can take timely action to avoid this PR disaster.”

If Naziry is convicted of all mail fraud charges, he faces a maximum sentence of 20 years and a fine of $250,000, the DOJ said.

The Mountain View native is also charged in a separate indictment from 2024, in which, according to prosecutors, he “wrongfully obtained approximately $35,093 in housing assistance payment to which he was not entitled.”

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